--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5T00000 Date: 05/23/97 From: GEORGE THURMAN Time: 05:17pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: MESSAGE FROM ARNIE CORO/RADIO HAVANA Hello.. I received the following in e-mail the other day from Arnie Coro at Radio Havana who asked me to post it here. gst gst@ziplink.net DXERS UNLIMITED NEW WEEKEND SKED AFTER A ONE WEEK TRIAL, DXERS UNLIMITED WILL BE AIRED DURING THE WEEKENDS AT THE SAME JUST AROUND 0130 AND 0330 UTC TIME SLOT THAT IS USED AT PRESENT FOR THE MID WEEK EDITION. WITH THESE CHANGE I THINK ITS GOING TO BE EASIER FOR EVERYONE WANTING TO CATCH THE TWO EDITIONS OF THE SHOW, ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT FOLLOW THE EXCLUSIVE AND NOT COPYRIGHTED "ARNIE CORO'S PROPAGATION UPDATE AND FORECAST" THE JUST AFTER 0630 UTC EDITION WILL BE CHANGED TO JUST AFTER 0530 UTC TOO. HERE IS THE SKED 13715 AM , 13725 SSB DXERS UNLIMITED AT JUST AFTER 2100 UTC 6000 AM DXERS UNLIMITED AT JUST AFTER 2200 UTC 6000 AM,9820 AM 9830* DXERS UNLIMITED AT JUST AFTER 0130 UTC AT JUST AFTER 0330 UTC 9820 AM 9830 SSB DXERS UNLIMITED AT JUST AFTER 0530 UTC BEAM HEADINGS ARE 13715 041 DEGREES 13725 037 DEGREES 6000 AT 22 UTC TO THE CARIBBEAN AND SOUTHEASTERN USA 6000 AT ALL OTHER TIMES 010 DEGRESS 9820 AT 0130 AND 0330 348 DEGREES 9820 AT 0530 315 DEGREES 9830 AT ALL TIMES 037 DEGREES HOPE THIS HELPS EVERYONE FIND DXERS UNLIMITED, AND ESPECIALLY THE PROPAGATION UPDATE WITHOUT HAVING TO REMEMBER THAT THE HOURS ARE DIFFERENT FOR THE MID WEEK AND WEEK END PROGRAMS... FROM NOW ON THEY ARE THE SAME... THANKS FOR YOUR VALUABLE HELP IN MAKING THIS INFO AVAILABLE TO SHORT WAVE ENTHUSIASTS AROUND THE WORLD YOUR FRIEND IN HAVANA ARNIE CORO HOST OF DXERS UNLIMITED --- Maximus/2 3.01 * Origin: (1:106/357) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5U00000 Date: 05/08/97 From: NATHAN BOLLINGER Time: 07:26am \/To: DIANE LEVESQUE (Read 1 times) Subj: Re: Non-Government SW radio >Hi, I was just wondering if I could get some thoughts on the matter of >private shortwave station cash flow. Quite a few private stations seem >to be up for sale these days, even some operated by religious orgs. that >take on apparently pre-paid programming. > >Is it proper to conclude that the provable shortwave listener base >(whether as a public to do public service to, or as a viable commercial >market), isn't big enough to support positive cash flow through station >operations? > >Anybody have any other explanations or theories? Well, I can't quote facts and figures, but there's hardly an issue of MONITORING TIMES magazine that comes to my mailbox that doesn't mention somewhere the budget problems of shortwave stations. And they also mention quite frequently the lack of growth in the SWL community. Considering the fact the there ARE so many stations up for sale, I'd say operating a shortwave broadcasting station is a money-losing proposition. (I'd still love to do it, though!) B-) I can offer no theories as to why this is happening. It's too easy to blame it on the internet, and quite frankly, I don't think that's the problem. Considereing a person needs several hundred dollars to buy a computer, and then has to pay a monthly acces fee to get on the net, and a good SW portable can be had for less that 50 bucks, it's a whole lot easier to get into SWLing than it is net surfing. I think maybe the problem lies with the fact that shortwave just doesn't get enough publicity. I'm 37 years old, and I still meet folks that're a good bit older than me that have never even HEARD of shortwave. Or if I mention shortave radio, they automatically think "CB." Perhaps if radio manufacturers would start advertising their wares the way internet providers do, emphasizing that you can "...explore the world.." on less than a hundred bucks, it could get the hobby jump started again. --- SLMAIL v4.5a (#0226) * Origin: The Big Byte BBS 704-279-2295 (1:379/301) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5V00000 Date: 05/25/97 From: SCOTT CHRISTENSEN Time: 05:59am \/To: NATHAN BOLLINGER (Read 1 times) Subj: Re: Non-Government SW radio Nathan Bollinger writes in a message to Diane Levesque NB> Considering the fact the there ARE so many stations up for NB> sale, I'd say operating a shortwave broadcasting station is NB> a money-losing proposition. (I'd still love to do it, though!) NB> B-) NB> I can offer no theories as to why this is happening. Look at it this way: Who is your audience? They are going to be a fairly small group of technically astute people scattered around the world. It's going to be real difficult to get advertisers to agree to pay money to reach that kind of an audience! They can reach many more people using standard AM/FM/TV stations in local markets - particularly if the product they sell isn't distributed worldwide. NB> Perhaps if radio manufacturers would start advertising their NB> wares the way internet providers do, emphasizing that you can NB> "...explore the world.." on less than a hundred bucks, it could NB> get the hobby jump started again. The Gulf War was the last reason many people had to tune in shortwave radio. Sales boomed. What we need is another good all-out war! --- COUNTERPoint 2.3 * Origin: MacRefuge * 612-426-6687 * (1:282/24) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5W00000 Date: 05/26/97 From: BILL CHEEK Time: 09:22am \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Cheap Spectrum Analyzer * Crossposted in SCANRADIO * Crossposted in SHORTWAVE * Crossposted in RADIO_HOBBY-ALL * Crossposted in TECH * Crossposted in NET202_RADIO Copyright (c) 1997 Bill Cheek Harken! Ye Publique Notice! Hear Ye! Know how professional spectrum analyzers cost anywhere from $10,000 on up to $60,000? And how hobbyist versions from ICOM, etc, can cost an arm and a leg? Well, hold on to your socks................ Little did anyone know, but a cheap, but great spectrum analyzer has been on the market for quite a while now in the form of WINRADIO! Yes, that's right, WinRadio has spectral display capability, but no one knew of it, including yours truly. But now we know! Coming soon, perhaps within a day or two of reading this, is Version 2.0 of the standard control program for WinRadio, that contains an RF SPECTRUM SCOPE with some pretty awesome capabilities.....free upgrade, to the best of my knowledge! For more information, including download of the upgrade software: http://www.winradio.net.au (Australia) http://www.winradio.com (USA) E-Mail: info@winradio.net.au And now, a brief overview of the RF SPECTRUM SCOPE capabilities in the coming Version 2.0 of the WinRadio control software: Version 2.0 contains some basic refinements of the main control program and one whopper of a new feature to make the competition eat their hearts out: an RF Spectrum Scope, basically a spectrum analyzer feature previously found only on very expensive radios,or as an expensive add-on! Zowie! It's too cool for words! One of the slickest things about the new RF Spectrum Scope is the ability to position the cursor on a "blip" and instantly, WinRadio tunes to that frequency! Bzzzaaaap! That quick! The RF Spectrum Scope has seven selectable spectrum scan steps as follows: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, & 100 kHz; two Resolution Bandwidths: 6 & 17 kHz; and a slew of setup and control options, including single and continuous sweeps; Max/Min/Previous/Current sweeps in different colors (especially slick for identifying 2-way systems that key and unkey all the time, in contrast to broadcast and continuous carrier signals that are always present.) WinRadio can be muted or unmuted during sweeps. Sweeps can be set by either of two criteria: start-stop (lower-upper limits), or center freq and bandwidth. Wicked! Utterly delightful is the ability to save the spectrum screen to a very small file and subsequently to reuse it as an active display, or later configure it as a photograph of a sweep. Hundreds of sweeps can be saved in a very small amount of disk space. A test sweep of the 88-108 MHz FM Broadcast Band required all of 1250-bytes. The RF Spectrum Scope, has a Zoom-In / Zoom-Out feature to make the spectral display appear as detailed or not as you choose. V2.0 upgrades the main control program in a number of subtle ways, including an S-Meter that shows numeric values of 0-100 as well as the original bargraph display. The RF Spectrum Scope shows the relative S-meter numbers, too! (A new scanning Squelch was added to the main program, too.) Spectrum sweeps can be set to pretty much any desired limits, though the narrower, the more efficient, of course. I'm not sure what the sweep speed is, but it would be measured in steps per second, and therefore is probably sync'd to the Scan/Search rate for the main radio at 50 per second. Given the seven sweep steps mentioned above, it is possible to sweep 20-MHz of spectrum in under 10-sec. If V2.0 of the WinRadio software isn't available for download at the above two Web sites when you read this, check back periodically during the coming week, as I'm told it will be released shortly. ===== Copyright (c) 1997 Bill Cheek/COMMtronics Engineering and absolutely All Rights Are Reserved. +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Bill Cheek ~ COMMtronics Engineering ~ World Scanner Report | | PO Box 262478 ~ San Diego, CA 92196-2478 | | Busn-Voice: (619) 578-9247 (1:30pm-5:30pm, PDT) FAX: anytime | | E-mail: bcheek@san.rr.com | | WWWeb Site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bcheek | | or: http://204.210.20.47 | | FTP Sites: ftp://ftp.cts.com/pub/bcheek or ftp.204.210.20.47 | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ --- Hertzian Mail+ * Origin: Hertzian Intercept-San Diego 619-578-9247 (6pm-1pm) (1:202/731) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5W00001 Date: 05/25/97 From: REIN PUNSELIE Time: 02:17pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Radio Beijing Hallo allemaal, Kan iemand mij helpen aan de uitzendtijden/frequenties in het Engels en/of Duits van radio Beijing? Groeten uit Papendrecht, Rein internet r.punselie@dosgg.nl --- MBM v4.13 * Origin: Point van DOSboss Zeeland (2:500/153.6704) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5W00002 Date: 05/25/97 From: CHRIS VANDENBERG Time: 12:51pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: mirnews.358 MIRNEWS.358 11 MAY 1997 MIR-routine: The successful spacewalk (EVA) gave the crew the elixir they badly needed. In the period after the EVA the lion's share of the activities had to consist of the preparations for the arrival of Atlantis on mission STS-84 on 17.05 (wind and weather permitting). Of course they do a lot in this repect, but repairs and the struggle to restore f ailing systems almost overtax the cosmonauts. They had to replace a number of essential parts of the SRV-U (the system for regenerating water from urine). Also the system SRV-K, to make water from condenstation had to be mended. A few day s they had to spend a lot of time on the 2 KOB-systems. One of those systems showed a repeatedly pressure decrease. The y needed a pressure hose for the repair and tried out some hoses they found. At last they connected one that fitted and solved the problem by the separation of both systems. They postponed the search for the leaks in the KOB-1 and 2 and t he cooling loop in Kvant-1 until after the departure of Atlantis. For the coordination of all activities and to get th e necessary advices from TsUP all VHF-windows are needed and used. They also communicate via Dryden and Wallops in the USA and Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany, even during holidays. Sometimes a failure emerges spontanuously during VHF-convers ations.For instance 11.05 during the pass in orbit 64127 at 0639UTC TsUP ordered Tsibliyev to switch off the cycling o f the solarpanels and when he did so the SOI (possibly the system for orientation and stabilisation) stopped. The reser vesystem (SOI-2) immediately took over. During the last days special attention had to be paid to the movements- (attit ude-) control systems. The external thruster in the Soforamast (VDU) has been used, possibly to take care for the stab ilisation during a resetprocedure for the gyrodynes. Preparations for the arrival of Atlantis: Especially Jerry Linenger is very busy with the selection and the arrangemen t of that what he has to deliver on Earth. The Russians also do so with the help of checklists. The main bulk of cargo for return consists of samples and software of experiments, but there is also a lot of defective and used equipment an d parts of systems. Altair-2: This geostationary satellite (23426 - 94082A) accomplished its walk from 96 dgs East to 17 dgs West, but did not make a stand. To stabilize the satellite over the calculated subsatellite point (between 16 and 17 dgs West) the VK S (Russian Space Forces) have to correct the orbit such that the period will become 1436 minutes ) on day 128 the peri od was still 1438 minutes. Mission STS-84 Atlantis: The main purpose of this mission is the delivery of Mike Foale and the relief of Jerry Linenge r for return to Earth. As soon as Mike Foales 'seatliner' has been transferred to MIR (in fact via MIR to Soyuz-TM25) M IR mission will get the designation MIR23/NASA5. If, wind and weather permitting, Atlantis will blast off on 15.05 the following schedule can be used: Launch 15.05 at 0808UTC, opening hatches 17.05 0428UTC. Undocking 22.05 at 0405UTC L anding 24.05 at 1153UTC. Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202. --- Maximus 2.01 * Origin: Scoop BBS (The Netherlands) +31-33-2996366 (2:500/202) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5W00003 Date: 05/25/97 From: CHRIS VANDENBERG Time: 02:53pm \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: MIRNEWS.359 MIRNEWS.359 25 MAY 1997 Just before the beginning of Atlantis mission STS-84 I left my 'station' for a badly needed vacation. For those who u se my 'MIRNEWS-series' as a chronicle I decided to draft a short summary of that mission. The information therein I der ived from different sources. Atlantis STS-84 mission largely accomplished successfully: Launch Atlantis on 15.05.97; flawless docking with MIR on 17.05.97. Michael Foale relieved his collegue Jerry Linenger. MIR's mission will be named : IR 23 / NASA 5. Both crews succeeded in transferring mutually all what had to be transferred within the 5-day period. Adding a 6th 'docking day' was not needed. MIR was plentifully provided with an extra supply of water and oxygen en the repla- ement equipment and spareparts to postpone for a very long time the definitive termination of the aging spacestation. The most important equipment for that purpose was the new oxygen machine Elektron, which had to be installed in the Module-D (Kvant-2). The old Elektron which had been repaired some weeks ago and has been operational in Module-D has been reinstalled in the former spot in Kvant-1 to be used as a reserve. The delivered supply of oxygen enables the crew to refrain for a long period from the use of the Elektrons. Defective equipment, for instance the old Elektron, which could not be repaired, has been brought back to e arth for analysis. Originally there has been a plan to deliver a new Antares transmitter for communications via the ge ostationary Altair-2 (now in position over 16 degrees West). Information about this plan is still unclear and even some times contradictory. Communications: During the combined flight the communications also to and from MIR had been handled to a large extent via the American TDRS-facilities. MIR communicated directly with trackingstations on Russian territory using VHF freque ncies. After the launch of Atlantis on 15.05 Eileen Collins could be heard on 259.7 mc between 0826 and 0829UTC when she via a trackingstation in Spain reported the 'power down of the APU'. Shortly after the stabilization of Altair-2 over 16 degrees West there has been word that the satellite had a transmitter failure and that the Russians would do all what w as possible to reactivate this transmitter. Due to my absence I was not able to monitor 10.830 Ghz. During my stay in Budapest I met a 'colleague' and he told me that he received somewhat like a 'wide band' signal on that frequency, prob ably a test signal by the VKS (Russian space forces). This was on 19.05. Later on and until the afternoon of 21.05 the transponder transmitted a continuous carrier without modulation. An other colleague in Western Europe monitored the w ideband signal and recorded this. Meanwhile there came some information about the Antares transmitter on board MIR. Th e installation of a new Antares has been put back until the arrival of a needed part which has to be delivered by Progr ess-M35 (launch 22.06, docking 24.06). Conlusion: Altair-2 is operational. The problem is still on board MIR. -2- -2- MIR-routine: The 3 crewmembers on board MIR again have to do the job alone. Just before the arrival of Atlantis they repaired the defective waterregeneration systems (SRV-K condensation and SRV-U urine) . Before a profound analysis on Earth of the quality of the water regenerated by the SRV-K they are not allowed to drink this water. They are satisfied about the new supply of oxygen and the relative high pressure of the atmosphere on board: 780 mm. On e of the first priorities is the search and elimination of a leakage in the coolingloop VGK. The passes of the MIR-sta tion for our position take place during the nighthours. So for a short period there will be not much radiotraffic via VHF unless something special happens during these nighthours. I will remain on the alert! Chris v.d. Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202. --- Maximus 2.01 * Origin: Scoop BBS (The Netherlands) +31-33-2996366 (2:500/202) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 140 SHORT WAVE Ref: E5X00000 Date: 05/26/97 From: MARK VELDHUIS Time: 09:43am \/To: ALL (Read 1 times) Subj: Hello? Hello All, Anybody still interested in this echo? I only get a few messages each week now, it almsot seems to be dead. Anyway, here are some of my recent catches: BRAZIL 3245,1 Radio Clube, Varginha 2357-0005 LA music, Portuguese advertisements (?), ID, popmusic. Best in LSB. SINPO: 23343 (Veldhuis MAY 25) CHAD 4940,5 Radiodiff. Nationale Tchadienne, N'Djamena 2121-2130 Heard on this frequencie thanks to a tip from Piet Pijpers. The engineer made a mistake, should be on 4904,5 kHz. Afro music, male speaker in French, ID at 2123 UTC. Bad audio, overmodulated. SINPO: 44444 (Veldhuis MAY 25) COLOMBIA 6034,9 La Voz del Guaviare, San Jose del Guaviare 2257-2305 LA music, Spanish announcement, choir, ID. SINPO: 33443 (Veldhuis MAY 24) EQUADOR 4770,05 Radio Centinela del Sur, Loja 2333-2355 Spanish talk, LA music, tentative ID. SINPO: 24343 (Veldhuis MAY 25) RWANDA 6055,0 Radio Rwanda, Kigali 2016-2040 Male speaker in French with music in the background, Afro- and popmusic, ID at 2037 UTC. SINPO at best: 44444 (More QRM after 2025 UTC) (Veldhuis MAY 24) All heard in the Netherlands on a AOR AR7030 with a 20 meter longwire. Kind regards, Mark Veldhuis mark.veldhuis@tip.nl --- FMail/Win32 1.22 * Origin: This is the world calling... (2:283/347.4)